Arch Linux

Arkamririon

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2005-12-27

Posts: 35

switch cdrom <-> extra battery

Its me again with a new laptop problem Ok it is not new, but after a long time i like to start searching for a solution.

So I'm using this Laptop with Linux for 1 1/2 years (with Arch since dec 2005) there is one thing i never solved or better i found no documentation in general about this.

It is a Asus M6 and i own a extra battery pack. I can remove the cdrom/dvd combo drive and use this slot for the extra battery.
But only when its off. I can't do this while its running. When i remove the cdrom/dvd combo drive i get a total system freeze. So when i want do switch from cdrom to battery i have to shutdown the laptop, remove the cdrom, insert the battery and restart the laptop.
I think (also i using linux for a long time, i'm a newby in the internals like hardware accesing) the freeze is because there is the device node in /dev and maybe some more conflicts but i don't know this internals. (Shouldn't this handled by udev?)

Hope my english is good enough, so that you can understand what i mean

So my question is: How can i do this switch while the laptop is running?

Ibex

Member

Registered: 2006-03-02

Posts: 135

Re: switch cdrom <-> extra battery

Weird. In my laptop I can plug out the cdrom without problems. Also plugging it back in, creates no problems. Actually, I'm making sure there is no cdrom in use when doing this, to prevent problems.

I didn't see anything pass the dmesg ouput when plugging the cdrom station in/out my laptop.

Would it possible for you to check if you see something showing up in the logs when plugging your cdromstation out?

SystemParadox

Member

From: Tavistock (Devon) and Bristol

Registered: 2006-06-09

Posts: 35

Website

Re: switch cdrom <-> extra battery

You can't just pull IDE devices. You have to unregister them first. For IBM ThinkPads there is software to control powering down the bay as well, but I don't think many other laptops have this.

You should try using the 'hotswap' program first. Google for "debian hotswap". You should download the source and build it yourself. If that doesn't work, you can try using hdparm directly (pacman -S hdparm ; man hdparm). On my thinkpad I found that this didn't work well (hotswap worked though), so I'm guessing hotswap does something else, but I don't know what.

Remember- before attempting this, _ALWAYS_ MAKE SURE that your disks are synced and the device is unmounted. If the device is mounted, your system WILL freeze completely.

Hope this is of some use
Simon